


Ashes of the World

by ninhursag



Series: Stormbreakers [2]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Estrangement, High Fantasy, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Invasion, M/M, POV Outsider, Reunions, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 11:42:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19333837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninhursag/pseuds/ninhursag
Summary: A kingdom is crumbling under a barbarian invasion. In one of the few remaining outposts, young Lisa Snart watches her brother prepare for war. But he has a connection with Chronos, the barbarian king that no one understands.Lisa/outsider pov.An au ofa storm coming in, where Ta-er al-Usfar never took the job and Chronos showed up with his armies.





	Ashes of the World

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: estrangement
> 
>  
> 
> This is the Coldwave version of this au haha. You don't really need to have read storm coming in, but it couldn't hurt.
> 
> Contains: mostly implied/suggested versions of the tags, other than the violence.

Lisa's brother was afraid and Leonard was almost never afraid. Not even of father, some of the time. They tried to keep the reasons for the fear from her, everyone did, but the stories were on everyone's lips.

Frightened, dusty travelers struggling north. Fearful servants fleeing into the dark woods and mountains. 

The South was burning, the capital had fallen and a barbarian army was coming, headed by the monster known as Chronos. He'd slain King Merlyn in open combat and then burned the city around him, glorying in its destruction. And now he was coming here. Here to the top of the world, the wintery North country. 

Lisa's brother was afraid but he did not say it. He was making plans, Lisa knew. Talking about supplies, defenses. Working with the stonemasons, with the artificer. And even their Lord father, who'd barely let Lenoard leave their castle since Lisa could remember, said nothing. There was a sharp rage in his eyes when he saw people quietly defer to Leonard but it was resolved quietly, privately, with bruises but nothing more. And he allowed it to continue.

Even he was finally more afraid of the outside danger than what Lenny could do when he was released. 

"You'd better have a good enough plan," was what father said, glaring at the bruised arm he'd left on his son. "Or else think about what happens to your sister. Think those animals would go easy on her?"

And Lenny had looked at her, his face stark, eyes tired. "We should send her into the mountains," he said. "You know whatever we do here, an army that took down the High King isn't going to blink."

Father glared. "You sound weak. And if we send her off everyone will know that we are weak. That we think we're doomed."

Lenny looked back at Lisa again and then at father and didn't say what Lisa knew. They were. The barbarians were coming. The town was overcrowded with desperate refugees, filthy and terrified, bodies broken. They were already running out of food, out of medicine, out of magic.

This was one of the last places left to go.

And for all the fear in it, it was one of the best times Lisa remembered in her short life. Her governess Patty stayed with her, but there were fewer lessons and more time in the sun. Her father was angry and afraid but more sober than he'd been in years. He ignored her mostly, other than to mutter about what the barbarians would do if they caught her.

And there was Lenny. Who he'd kept close, a prisoner of sorts, all of Lisa's life, since some rumoured awful thing had happened all those years ago. A rebellion? An elopement? Something worse?

No one told Lisa exactly what had happened, what Leonard had done to earn father's wrath, just that she'd been born right after it, and her mother had died in the birth 

That somehow Leonard had lost his hand and his freedom and their father's trust. And maybe a lover? No one told Lisa that part, but they whispered it to themselves.

And father insinuated it when he was in a rage, screamed and called Lenny 'catamite' and 'peasant's whore.'

And one time, when Lisa had been hiding and they hadn't known she was behind the tapestry, Len had spat back, "I was no one's whore until you made me be. You stole my honor and butchered my vowed."

And father had struck him, hard enough to knock him over and said, "and you deserved it. It's all you're good for."

But Lenny was the one she remembered who always loved and took care of her, when he was allowed. He lost those things-- hand and love and freedom and honor-- but he got her.

And now, in these terrible days, he was always allowed to have her. She could be with him, ride on his shoulders and sit by his side when he planned, looked over siege weapons, spoke with refugees who'd survived encounters. Eat with him and talk with him and pour watered wine for him like a cup bearer when he couldn't because of his one hand.

Cisco the artificer took time from his weapons smithing to craft her a small dagger, golden hilted and bestowed it with a smile.

Singh the guardsman watched her and gave her lessons in the use.

Barry Allen, the priest, spoke quietly about escape plans.

"You should escape with us. I won't go without you," Lisa told her brother, tangling her small fingers in the soft linen of his shirt.

"You will and must," Len said and kissed the top of her head gently. "You're a child, my sister. I'm here to fight."

She glared at his wooden hand and hissed, "father says you can't fight with that. I have two hands at least." Because she's angry and doesn't want to be left behind.

But he doesn't get angry back, just sadder, making her sadder too. "I know," he said. "And you will live and fight and be free."

And she finds out later that the artificer, Cisco, made him a weapon, a special one, made with magic, that can be wielded one handed.

When the barbarians finally come to their gates, roaring armies and horses, he'll slay many from the walls, raining down cold and ice, along with ballista and molten fire from the city stores.

But that won't be enough. They don't have food, not even enough for a normal winter with the refugees. They don't have enough ammunition. Enough anything but starving bodies.

And then, someone poisons half the wells and water is rationed too. People pray for snow and snowmelt, but there's little fire to heat the homes and the Lord, Lisa's father hoards most of it.

There's panic in the air. Only Lenny and those working with him seem to calm it. But they can't be everywhere all of the time.

Lisa's governess packs a small bag and sews gold and silver and Lisa's mother's jewellery into the lining of their dresses and shoes at Leonard's direction.

"I won't go without you, I won't," Lisa hissed. And wailed and pounded her fists against his bruised chest (father had been angry again. Or drunk). But Leonard said nothing and just held her, heavy and calming, until she stilled.

"I plan to join you," he said. "I do plan that. When I can. I don't want to leave you alone." And his arms were tight around her shoulders and there were tears in her eyes.

"You'd better," she told him. "I'll hate you if you don't."

There were tunnels leading out that they snuck through at night, Barry Allen guiding them, Patty, Lisa's governess holding her hand. They fled into the dark.

At the mouth of the tunnel, where they should have been free and away, they were caught instead.

Not by the barbarians. By Lord Snart, Lisa's father, who grinned slyly.

"I'll be going with you," he said. "No point staying to die with the rats on a sinking ship."

And Lisa glared at him and Barry Allen began to say something, but before she could shout out a warning, Lord Snart shot him with some type of dart, dropping him where he stood.

Lisa screamed out then, and Patty stood in front of her, putting her body between her small charge and the Lord. And got punched and knocked aside for her trouble. And again and again when she tried to rise until she was still on the ground.

"Where's the hiding place they were taking you to?" father asked Lisa.

"I don't know," she said, anger stealing her fear. "They did, and you knocked them out."

He looked like he'd hit her too then, but thought better of it. Grabbed her instead, hard and by the arm, leaving fearful bruises. "Never mind," he said. "I won't hide. I have a better plan than that stupid son of mine."

Into the morning they stumbled. Through the woods, painful branches and torn up sticks and icy winter winds.

Straight into the arms of a barbarian patrol. And Lisa's father just smiled, like this had always been his plan. And he said to the leader, a deadly looking dark skinned woman, "tell King Chronos, I am here to treat with him. I am Lord Snart and I'm going to tell him how to enter the city and give him my daughter here as earnest."

And the disgust was visible in the barbarian woman's face, pure and visible. "Perhaps I don't understand you," she said. "You're betraying your own city and giving your child to Chronos?"

And Lisa's father just laughed. "Needs must. A little young, but some men like that."

And so they brought them in. Lisa felt cold and empty as they walked. At least the barbarians didn't grab her arm to tug her and let her set the pace. They were quiet around her. Speaking softly to each other in their own languages, careful and alert in a way that reminded her of Singh or even Lenny himself.

Her father was louder, humming a bit, pleased with himself and his gambit. And she hated him, she hated him so much she was cold with it. Barry and Patty. And Lenny, who he'd hurt so much and so often.

And now he was betraying them all.

They were brought to King Chronos' tent. It was huge, intimidating, full of bright color and strange rich hanging art. Like a mobile palace. But unlike a palace there was a stack of heads piled up in front of the entrance, in a pyramid shape. Flies buzzing around them. Lisa swallowed and looked away, trying not to recognize any of them.

Her father didn't even seem to notice.

In the middle of the tent was a wide chair, like a throne. And on it was a large, masked, gloved man. Lisa had heard about that. They said Chronos was terribly scarred by fire. That he'd been driven mad by it at young age and sworn revenge on the kingdom because of it.

Chronos rose when they were ushered in, his mask covering his face and leaving him an expressionless blank. "Amaya," he said to the warrior woman, who bowed her head easily. "What have you brought me?" There was something about his accent that startled Lisa. It wasn't southern at all. He sounded clear and familiar, like he'd grown up within a few miles of here.

"Lord Snart, my king," the woman said, her own accent still thick. "Claims to know a way under the city defenses. And the girl is his daughter."

Lisa's father pushes her forward then, toward the throne. "Yours for the taking, my king," he says, all oily and obsequious. "A young, noble virgin."

Chronos spat out of his mask. "So. Last time you and I met, you tried to have me burned alive for despoiling a noble virgin of your blood, and that one was willing and a lot closer to full grown. The world's a different place these days."

Lord Snart frowned. "I'm afraid you're mistaking me for someone else, my king. I'd never deny your power."

And Chronos laughed. It was an awful laugh. Madness thick in it. Lisa shuddered.

"My brother will hurt you, if you hurt me," she said. Her voice came out louder and more certain than she'd thought it could. "Father may not care but he will."

Chronos took a step closer, his black, featureless face giving her nothing, his gloved hands in fists. "Your brother? Another puling brat like you?"

"Lenny's a man, not a brat, he's five and twenty. He'll deny you our city and kill you for the crows to eat." She felt so much braver, surer than she should.

There was no responding anger. Just simple quiet, a hush. The woman, Amaya, gasped. For a long moment, no one spoke.

Finally it was Lisa's father who said, "let me punish her for you, my king. She's a foolish girl, that boy is nothing before you. Just a little catamite whore."

Lisa flinched back but she didn't need to, Amaya was between her and her father in a blink. And then, when the man was sprawled out on the ground, Chronos stood up.

"Chain him up," he growled. "Out there where I can look at him."

And they grabbed the whining, spitting, threatening lord and did just that, before Lisa's wide eyes. "And you, girl," Chronos said to Lisa with something strange in his voice. "You go back and tell Len that I did live, like he told me to. And I'm sorry it took me so long but I'm here now if he'd like to see me. If he was willing."

She blinked. "You know Lenny?" she said, almost too softly. And that accent he had-- that northern homegrown accent. 

"You don't look like him, but I see him in you a little now. You're brave like he was. Is," Chronos said, instead of responding. "I thought he was dead. All these years. Tell him that too, would you, sister?"

"I'm not your sister," Lisa replied. "But I'll tell him if you let me go."

So she went, head held high and unmolested, back to the castle. Walked past where the barbarians had staked out her father in chains, at the entrance of the tent. He yelled at her back but she ignored him.

At the castle, she was relieved to meet Patty, who was bruised but alive, and Barry, whose magic had helped him survive the poisoned dart.

And then she told Leonard, who was sitting sprawled in their father's chair now, like it was his, what Chronos had said, all of it. And Len's eyes were blue and empty as the cold winter sky, but he bit his lower lip and made a soft broken sound.

"I thought he was dead too," he whispered. And looked away and wouldn't answer her questions when asked. His shoulders set. "He's kept me waiting," was all he said.

He wouldn't say more, no matter how much Lisa pleaded that she deserved to know. Just, I'm sorry, Lisa, I can't. I can't talk about it. Not yet.

And her brain ran away with her, speculating, imagining, what the strange masked man who was the barbarian king was to her brother.

But he decided he would go. Alone and unarmored, wearing his plain black linen shirt and trousers, with boots. Bare headed, with just the weapon Cisco had made for him at his side.

"Are you insane, Leonard?" Barry Allen hissed, but Cisco stopped him and muttered something in his ear. And whatever it was made Barry's eyes go wide.

Len's shoulders were set and he had the same stark, exhausted look he'd worn for as long as Lisa remembered but there was something else now. Wary and fragile. A possibility where there'd been none.

Chronos who had grown up here, in this place. A peasant? Who had despoiled a noble virgin of father's blood. And that meant… that could only mean…

She followed him out of the city walls. She didn't know how she managed it, blind luck, small size, the utter depth of his distraction. He was lost in some world of his own making.

No one in the barbarian camp stopped her. Or him. They stared instead, whispering and staring, wide eyed and wondering, these fierce warriors, in their armor and paint. Stepping aside.

He looked just as out of place among them as he had at castle dinners when the nobles and the gentry were decked out in finery. He looked just as perfect here as he had there, outshining them all, Lisa thought, with all the devotion of a girl to her beautiful brother.

They took him to Chronos' tent. Father was still there, just outside, still in chains. But he'd been stripped now, pale limbs and soft paunch exposed to the air. And there were bleeding whip marks on his back, deep and dreadful.

Lisa gasped, to see him brought so low. Len only stopped. 

"This is your doing, isn't it?" Father howled at him. "My useless son. Did you whore yourself to the barbarian too, is that what you did? You brought down the whole kingdom with your worthless ass."

And Lenny said, so softly she almost didn't hear it. "You did this, not me. You hurt him and he burned the world. You deserve this more than everyone else who got hurt because of it."

And then he walked into the royal tent like he belonged there, Lisa's beautiful brother. He finally seemed to notice Lisa herself but was too distracted to do much other than stand closer to her. Too deep into it to go back.

And everyone was so still, waiting to hear what he'd say.

"Take that mask off and let me see you," were his first words to Chronos. Quiet but commanding.

And Chronos, the destroyer, scourge of the kingdom, said, softly, "Hello, Lenny," and he obeyed just like that, slipping the mask over his head and off. Lisa didn't know what she expected. "You grew up tall."

He was a big man, Chronos, and had a blunt, rough face but it wasn't ugly by any means. Blazing hazel eyes. Eyes that held such unexpected hope in them. Rough and heavy, but not unpleasant features. Young, of an age with Len. Of course he was. There were a few burn scars on his neck, scattered. Not bad enough to deform his face.

"Mick," Lenny said. "You grew up taller. And you came back late. It's been ten years."

"I swore a vow," Chronos who was Mick replied. He took a step closer. Lisa held her breath. "To you, to your ghost. To lay the ashes of the world at your grave."

Len took a step back. "I don't have a grave and I don't want ashes. Ten years, Mick. I'm not who I was." 

Mick shook his head. Took another rapid step forward, moving fast for such a big man. Without his mask there was no mystery to his expression left, it was all anguish and hunger.

Len swallowed and stood his ground this time, arms tight by his sides. He let Chronos who was Mick come closer. 

"I've seen you in every waking dream, and here you are, alive," Mick said. "We both swore another vow, in a grove, with a priest. Your hand to mine and I'll be true to only you. That means you're mine until death parts us." And Lisa wasn't surprised after all.

A local boy and her brother, who would have been fifteen ten years ago. A virgin of noble blood. An elopement. This was the mystery no one shared with her.

Len kept himself stiff and still. "I haven't kept that vow," he said quiet and very tired. "I haven't had the choice."

Mick made a shrugging gesture. He was close enough to touch now. He didn't, he left that arms worth of space between them. "I'll kill everyone who touched your skin without your say so. I'll bring you their heads and their balls. You can make a necklace out of them, like a god's."

Lenny smiled then, a little. "Sounds grotesque," he said. And then, steadily, "You can't take this city, Mick, not with an army. This place is mine."

"I won't. Consider it a wedding gift," Mick said grandly, like it was nothing to lift the threat and the fear from all the people huddled behind the walls.

Len snorted and the smile on his face grew a bit. "We've been wed for ten years, that's also a little late in coming."

"I'll give more. I'll give you everything." A long quiet moment. "Can I touch you, Lenny?"

A sharp, decisive shrug and then Leonard nodded. Another moment, and those large, thick arms wound their way around his shoulders. He was visibly stiff and then made a noise like a sob and relaxed. Mick held on hard.

Lisa stifled her own sob, seeing her brother like that, cracked open in front of everyone and held tight. Allowing it. Allowing the arms around him, even hugging back.

Her cheeks were wet and it felt fine. This was a terrible time, all the history books would say so, when a kingdom fell to ash. But the barbarian hordes stopped at the gates of her city. And her brother wasn't afraid anymore.


End file.
